CHAMPIONS (The Lost Chronicles of Eden, #1) [Published]

EXTRA: LUKAS PROVES HE GOT GAME

The first time Gabriel saw Solenn in a dress, his jaw dropped to the ground floor of Tower Faith, and he was a hundred and fifty something floors up at the time.

It wasn't even a dress, per se, it was more of a blue oversized shirt with a skull print in the middle that went past her knees, clinched at the waist with a thick black and gold belt. She wore her favorite black high cuts studded with silver spikes at the back.

All in all, she didn't look graceful like Selina or pretty like Joana, or even gorgeous like Deborah, for that matter, but Solenn wearing normal clothes-clothes that weren't the standard-issue Guardian uniform-was beautiful.

It wasn't really what she was wearing, but how she wore it. She wore it like she wore her Guardian uniform, with pride that almost bordered on arrogance, and with a quiet grace that was more often than not overshadowed by her swag.

Yes, swag, Gabriel thought. That was the word. Solenn wasn't beautiful in any conventional sense of the word. She was beautiful in the way she was confident in her skin, scars and all, in her achievements, in her status as a Champion and a respected, high-ranking Guardian. She was beautiful in the way she carried herself, oftentimes tall and proud, and sometimes fun and easygoing.

Solenn gave Gabriel a slight nod in greeting, with a barely discernible, "Yo," before she walked over to where Mateo was putting together a new weapon. It was a fusion of a sword and a gun, inspired by a game Solenn had brought with her from the Center Realm.

Something in Gabriel's gut churned and kicked when Solenn walked past him without another glance, but he caught himself in time before he made a sound that would most likely embarrass him.

Wanting more than a half-hearted greeting and a glance, he squared his shoulders and walked over to where Solenn and Mateo were.

The two were already elbow-deep in machinery and weaponry that Gabriel had no name for. He cleared his throat in a futile attempt to remove the lump that suddenly formed in his throat-Solenn had that effect on him sometimes-and greeted them as casually as he could.

"Hey."

"Hey," Solenn greeted back, not even looking up.

Mateo was kinder and more accommodating, if a bit distracted himself. "Hey, Gab. What's up?"

"Nothing, I was just hanging around."

Solenn ignored him in favor of testing the sharpness of the sword with her bare hand.

"Okay, cool." Mateo gave Gabriel a small, distracted smile and then promptly went back to his work.

"Okay," Gabriel said. He opened his mouth to talk again, but no sound came out. It was quite obvious that the two wouldn't be paying attention to him anytime soon, so with everything that's left of his shattered pride (because dude, nobody ignored Gabriel Galvez... or Die'Erde... or whatever his name was nowadays), he threw them a quick good-bye (ignored, of course), before he walked away. He was about to walk back to his own work desk, when he caught sight of Lukas casually leaning against a nearby table, his weapon ignored before him.

Of course, the turd was laughing at him, having seen the entire awkward exchange.

"And that, my friend," Lukas said in between his breathless chortles, "is how you kill a blossoming romance."

Gabriel gave his friend a small scowl and a whack upside his head. "Oh, shut up," he said.

"Dude, watch the goods!" Lukas rubbed the spot Gabriel hit and rolled his eyes at his friend's desperation. "I'm telling you, that was so lame, bro. I know you got more game than that."